SOWK913 - Policy Brief: Combating Dowry System in Nepal

This policy brief examines the persistent issue of dowry in Nepal, despite existing legal frameworks aimed at its eradication. It identifies loopholes in the Social Practices Act (1976) and the Domestic Violence Act (2009), arguing that their failure to explicitly criminalize dowry-related actions contributes to the problem. The brief highlights the link between dowry and domestic violence, emphasizing the need for social awareness campaigns to encourage reporting and stricter laws to protect women. Recommendations include amending the constitution to protect families from dowry demands, funding organizations dedicated to women's rights, and implementing pre-marriage legal contracts to prevent dowry practices. The brief concludes that a holistic approach, combining legal reforms with social awareness, is essential to effectively combat dowry and its associated consequences in Nepal, particularly in rural areas.

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Executive summary
The practice of dowry has been a highly prevalent issue in most of the countries of
south east Asia, and Nepal happens to be one of them. There have been several acts and
frameworks, including agencies that aim at making sure that the social evil is eliminated from
the system. However, the fact that the issue still looms widely in the country proves that these
have failed due to the existing loopholes in them. This policy brief paper aims at identifying
such loopholes and inefficiencies of existing frameworks to come up with a proper
recommendation of new set of policies that would be able to address the situation more
effectively. Following an extensive critical analysis, the recommendations section of the
policy brief suggests that the first thing to be done is to make sure that necessary amendments
are made in the constitution of the country that aim at protecting families from dowry, and
even those laws and acts that are aimed at preventing issues like domestic violence, which is
one of the major issues related to dowry. There have been several agencies who have been
fighting for women’s rights related to this issue, and it is important for the government to be
able to find such organizations with the potential to bring about the required change and fund
them accordingly, apart from giving them necessary directions on the same. Last but not the
least, it is suggested that the major policy to be implemented is a legal contract attested by
both the families before marriage that would be laying out the agreement that none of the
families have taken any measures for dowry, treating this as a preventive measure.

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Table of Contents
Purpose.......................................................................................................................................3
Critical analysis..........................................................................................................................4
Recommendation........................................................................................................................7

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Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to come up with an effective social policy framework that
would be able to prevent the social evil of dowry from prevailing in the society of Nepal. The
main thing that has to be focused on is how dowry is a social evil and in what ways it affects
relevant stakeholders in the process. It is for this reason why the main thing that has to be
noted is that there are current policies and legal frameworks in the country of Nepal that
prevent dowry, and have already categorized it as illegal in the country. Therefore, there must
have been several loopholes in these frameworks that are responsible for making sure that the
social evil does not get abolished from the culture of Nepal. These loopholes have to be
addressed in the first place in order to make sure that the newly proposed policies would be
free of the loopholes that exist in the current framework, for the purpose of ensuring the fact
that the issue is addressed more effectively all over the country.
Dowry is a practice of offering materialistic gifts to the groom’s family from the
bride’s family during marriage proposal between the two. Originally, it was practiced by
people belonging in the higher strata of the society, and economically advanced communities.
Later on in the modern generation, dowry has become a practice in every group and
community within the country of Nepal, and the major thing to be concerned about in this
regard is the fact that often times, economical advancements do not even count while
practicing dowry. This leads to the groom’s family asking for ridiculous goods or cash from
the bride’s family that cannot even afford it without loans. Financially, this puts a high
financial burden on the bride’s family post the marriage that often leads to other issues. One
of the major issues in this context is that of suicide. Upon being unable to pay back loans or
being unable to recover from the financial stress arising from the dowry, it often leads to
suicide of the head of the family responsible for paying back the loan or running the family

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(Karki, 2014). Furthermore, in many instances, where the bride’s family is unable to give
dowry to the groom’s family, and the marriage still takes place, the bride often becomes a
victim to domestic violence, arising from the grudge held by the family and the groom for not
being able to receive an attractive dowry.
Therefore, when the policy brief paper tries to address the issue of dowry, it also has
to make sure that the after effects or consequences like those mentioned in the earlier
paragraph also are mitigated and do not pose a threat to the society. Therefore, the brief aims
at coming up with a holistic approach that would not only be addressing the issue of dowry,
but would attempt at eliminating the issue and all of its subsequent consequences overall. It is
for this reason why the main thing that has to be considered in this regard is the fact that the
state’s power has to be highly considered while formulating this policy brief. This is because
of the fact that the issues discussed so far are legal issues, for which, executive and legal
frameworks have been existing in the constitution of the country. Therefore, since these
frameworks in the constitution have been proving to be ineffective, it calls for the attention of
the government more than any other to properly look into the matter. The major thing that
had to be noted in this regard is the fact that the policy would be having to address the
loopholes in the constitution in an effective manner and then figure out why they are
ineffective. In other words, what aspects of it are ineffective and create loopholes? This
would be able to provide proper insights into the problem and the policy to be developed
based on that would be able to make sure that the current framework’s weaknesses would be
modified and the existing loopholes would be eliminated altogether. Thereby, this would be
helpful in making a comprehensive framework that would be able to completely address the
issue.
Another aspect about dowry is the fact that it is mostly practiced in rural areas, where
developments have been low. Urban areas have started to modernize themselves and social

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evils like dowry have significantly decreased. This is why the main target for this policy brief
would be people residing in the rural areas. The following sections in this policy brief paper
would be containing the critical analysis of the policy that is being implemented, and
recommendations from that critical analysis for the new policies to be hence formulated.
Critical analysis
The main thing that has to be noted in this regard is the fact that the social issue of
dowry has a number of aspects related to it. The major thing is of course, the concept of
dowry itself, which is often a financial stress for a family. Furthermore, the issue of domestic
violence is also there, which is a legal issue in the country, and is somehow associated with
the concept of dowry. This indirectly leads to the infringement of women’s rights, which is a
major issue for any developing country like Nepal. As a developing country, in order to rise
up the HDI rankings, Nepal has to be making sure that social issues like dowry and women’s
rights infringement are eliminated from its society for the purpose of making sure that
development in the society comes along faster than anticipated. The current framework for
preventing the social evil of dowry has been highly ineffective in the country, especially in
the rural areas, as the discussion in the brief so far has pointed out that it is still practiced in
the country especially in the rural areas. This is why the current issue and the framework
responsible for preventing the same have to be critically analysed to come up with an
effective recommendation set.
The Social Practices Act (1976) is aimed at abolishing the practice of dowry in the
country of Nepal. However, the fact that it still looms widely in the country especially in the
rural areas, proves the fact that it still does exist in the country. It is for this reason why the
major thing that has to be considered is the revision of the policy. The policy simply states
that any act of asking for dowry, or the promotion of the same from any individual or group

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is punishable under law. Therefore, from this itself it could be concluded that the law states
that dowry is a social injustice, and violators would be prosecuted. However, it does not
explicitly lay out the warning that such an act is legally offensive. In other words, it does not
criminalize the individuals expecting or promoting dowry. One good thing however about
this action is the fact that it does not take into consideration the factor of consent. This is
because if the law allowed for dowry to take place on the basis of consent, domestic violence
could have been a consequence of people who refused to give consent to the same. Overall,
research shows that worldwide, acts that criminalize an action are less likely to be violated
than those acts that are simply aimed at prohibiting an issue (Duff, 2013).
The Domestic Violence Act (2009) is an act that is aimed at making sure that all the
women are safeguarded under this act from the brutalities and hostilities of the physically
stronger gender. For years, the issue of domestic violence has been a controversial issue, with
ethical concerns arising questions on whether the government should intervene in private and
personal matters such as domestic violence, until recently in 2009, when the government
passed this law. Even in this aspect, the main thing that has to be noted is the fact that it only
provisions punishment and compensations for the acts of domestic violence and does not
prominently criminalize the people instigating the situation (Gurung, 2009 ). It is for this
reason why the main thing that has to considered in this regard is the fact that domestic
violence should be criminalized under law, under the same philosophy that acts that
criminalize an action are less likely to be violated than those acts that are simply aimed at
prohibiting an issue. One of the major things that have to be considered in this regard is the
fact that many people who have been a subject to the issue of domestic violence have been
silent for a long time, under the fear of social perceptions. This is the main reason why the
country of Nepal needs to have social awareness campaigns to report these incidents without
fear so that the acts of domestic violence could be eliminated altogether especially in the rural

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areas of the country, where the development needs to seep in the most for the purpose of
making sure that the social evils that are related to dowry are eliminated.
Logically, if the issue of domestic violence is mitigated throughout the country, this
would eventually help the implementation of stricter laws for the prohibition of dowry, since
it would not lead to any consequences. This is the reason why the major thing that has to be
done is to make sure that the issue of domestic violence is criminalized altogether, rather than
just functioning as a defensive framework for the safeguarding of women’s rights. This is a
major loophole, which is why the social evil still exists. The theory of fear of consequences
states that people tend to act in a certain way when there are severe consequences for not
doing so, and works under the exact opposite philosophy of the expectancy theory (Gephart
et al., 2009).
There are even agencies that are aimed at making sure that women’s rights are
safeguarded in the world, and many of the most renowned ones are based in Nepal itself.
These include non governmental organizations such as WOREC, SAATHI, and The
Women’s Foundation, Nepal. All if these have a common goal, and that is to make sure that
the rights and interests of the women in the society are well safeguarded from the social evils.
However, their problems lie in the fact that most of these organizations are not active
investigators, and purely rely on reported cases.
In other words, the main thing that has to be noted is the fact that the country needs an
active set of organizations who would actively investigate into the matters related to women’s
rights, rather than only relying on cases which are reported to them. Since a major chunk of
the women in the country stay silent after an issue related to domestic violence. This is why
an active investigation into the matter would be highly helpful for the cause of mitigating it
altogether. Also, most of the organizations do not directly investigate the matters related to

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dowry, which is one of the major social evils affecting women in the country especially in the
rural areas.
Therefore, from the above discussion, it could be concluded that the major thing that
has to be done in order to make sure that dowry related cases in the country, including the
consequences that come along with it are criminalized instead of just being prohibited under
law for the purpose of making sure that the social evil ceases to exist in the society. Perhaps,
what is required is a framework that would be able to make sure that a preventive measure is
taken to stop the issue from arising altogether. It is in this context that a proper statism
framework, emphasising on the monopoly of the power of the state is implemented. The
statism framework of policy formulation argues that the state has all of the power for the
purpose of making sure that there are enough ways in which a particular direction or decision
is implemented in the country or a state within the country. This is because of the fact that the
state holds the majority of the power for the purpose of directing the state through the help of
law and it is the major and in most cases the only law making body in the state. The reason
why this framework has been chosen for the purpose of social policy formulation in this
policy brief is because of the fact that the discussion in the critical analysis thus far has
correctly pointed out that the loopholes that widely loom in the country in relation to dowry
and subsequent events could be attributed to the ineffectiveness of the laws that exist to
prevent these issues. Therefore, the recommendations in the upcoming section of this paper
would be aimed at making sure that the state takes necessary actions and amendments to
mitigate the ongoing issue.
Recommendation
The following steps should be adhered to, based on the discussions in the earlier
sections to avoid the social issue of dowry in Nepal:

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 One of the major things that have to be done is to make sure that the constitution is
amended and cases related to dowry and other consequences related to it, like
domestic violence are criminalized by law, and more strict penalties such as
imprisonment are deployed by the government.
 Social agencies fighting for the rights of women should be funded by the government
adequately and should be given proper guidance on how to actively investigate into
the matters relating to dowry and domestic violence. There should be a proper KPI
evaluation for the agencies and they should be funded accordingly and given
objectives to fulfil from the government itself. This would help in making sure that
there is a joint effort from the government and non governmental organizations, and
the NGO’s are able to penetrate into areas where the government fails to, thereby
leaving no areas spared in terms of addressing the social issue.
 With these steps taken, the major thing that has to be done is to make sure that before
every marriage, a legal document is signed prior to it, with both the families attesting
that they have not practiced dowry or have not been asked or asked for dowry from
the other family. This would effectively make sure that no dowry is practiced by any
family in the country, and would criminalize the issue. Since the practice of dowry
would itself be abolished by this preventive measure, the chances of any consequence
as a result of it would also be abolished. Therefore, not only would such a measure be
able to make sure that the practice of dowry is abolished altogether from the system,
but would also ensure that it does not lead to any consequences either, thereby making
for a holistic framework. Penalizing for tagging a relationship as a marriage without
the signing on the official document is also a necessity, and could range between
anything from a hefty fine or even imprisonment based on the extent of the
infringement.

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References
Duff, R. A. (2013). Criminal attempts. International Encyclopedia of Ethics.
Gurung, R., 2009. Beating Nepal's 'social evil': Terai women rise up against the dowry
system. [Online] Available at:
https://www.academia.edu/10318861/Beating_Nepals_social_evil_Terai_women_rise
_up_against_the_dowry_system [Accessed 5 September 2019].
Karki, S. (2014). A study on dowry related violence in Nepal.
Kish-Gephart, J. J., Detert, J. R., Treviño, L. K., & Edmondson, A. C. (2009). Silenced by
fear:: The nature, sources, and consequences of fear at work. Research in
organizational behavior, 29, 163-193.